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STUDIES OF THE STARS. 


BY HENRY W. WARREN, D.D. 
y) 


NEW YORK: 
Poteet. Po SoS FE AT 
CINCINNATI: 
WALDEN & STOWE. 
1882. 


Copyright 1877, by 
NELSON & PHILLIP®, 
New York, 


nt 4 A ee FOG 


STUDIES OF THE STARS. 


. THE MORNING STAR. 


“ « “The heavens number out the glory of the strong 


we 
Se. 


~~ 
<f} 


God.”—Davip. 


The universe is God’s name writ large. 


- Thought goes up the shining suns as 
“golden stairs and reads the consecutive 


A 


- syllables, all might, and wisdom, and 


~ beauty, and, if the heart be fine enough, 


and pure enough, it also reads every-where 


| the mystic name of love. All God’s 


o flowers are rose-buds in language. And 

“ whether they are violets, or snow-flakes, 

~ or clustered suns filling immensity with 
. their mingled hues, if held to the heart 

instead of the ear, they will speak in their 
‘own language the constant sat and 
~ power of love. 


The stars speak the oldest language. 


* The morning stars sing together. As the > 


Psalmist says, ‘‘there is no speech nor 
language, their voice is not heard ”’ by the 


4A STUDIES OF THE STARS 


ear. Neither is the voice of the flowers, 
But how can the lover speak more gently, 
beautifully, or significantly, or how can 
the loved one hear miore clearly, or feel 
more deeply? How can God write his 
name more widely or plainly, hold the 
open page before all men more constantly, 
or how can we read the message in more 
impressive language? 

Some have asked whether the myriads 
of distant worlds were inhabited. It is 
not’ known. Perhaps it is a sufficient 
cause of their being that they should tes- 
tify so effectually of .God to every man, 
whether savage or sage, in all ages of time. 

Let us learn to read the hieroglyphics, 
and then often turn to the blazonry of the 


page. 


A million torches, lighted by thy hand 

Wander unwearied through the blue abyss; 
‘They own thy power, accomplish thy command, 

All gay with life, all eloquent with bliss. 
What shall we call them? Piles of glorious 

light, 

A glorious company of golden streams, 
‘Lamps of celestial ether burning bright, 

Suns lighting systems by their joyous beams ? 
But thou to these art as the noon to night. 

—DERZHAVIN. 


THE .,SUN. 
“ His countenance was as the sun shining in his 
strength.”’ 
Diameter of Sun, 852,000 miles. 
Revolves on its axis in 25 days. 

Let us cut ourselves loose from the 
world, from all worlds, and float as dis- 
embodied spirits at will. Behold! before 
us the Sun. How vast and seemingly 
infinite. When one has journeyed for 
weeks on the ocean, and seen no shore, 
the Earth has seemed vast. But if the 
Sun were tunneled through by a hole large 
enough to receive our world, and we had 
plenty of such globes to fill up the hole, 
now many should we use? Roll ina 
dozen, then 20, then 75 more. It takes 
1074 earths side by side to measure the 
‘ast diameter of the Sun; 1,252,700 of 
our earths to make the vast extent of its 
bulk. 

Its appearance of ever-during calm is 
delusive. Its vast atmosphere is traversed 
by storms. Tornadoes almost cease to 
mean any thing in such vast commotions. 
Our little seas and winds sometimes seem 
to raise tremendous tempests. One can 


6 STUDIES OF THE STARS 


scarcely stand when the wind blows sixty 
miles an hour. But enlarge the world a 
million fold, put all its forces into propor- 
tional activity, and what then? The vast 
photosphere is often rent asunder in huge 
chasms, thousands of miles in extent. 
They close up again. The sides approach 
each other at the rate of 20,000 miles an 
hour. The advancing sides strike to- 
gether. The rising wave of fire leaps 
thousands of milesinspace. The blazing 
surge falls again into the incandescent 
sea, spaces larger than the whole conti 
nent of America are almost suddenly 
laid bare of light, and as suddenly over- 
whelmed. Vast spires of burning hydro- 
-gen flash out 80,000 miles into space. 
Professor Young on one occasion saw 
them projected over 200,000 miles from 
the surface. It is 300,000 times as hot 
aS any summer we ever knew. 

The movement of these spots can be 
easily illustrated. Take an apple, or any 
other sphere, pass an axis through it, then 
in the region of the equator cut various 
sized irregular spots, and darken them 
withink. Incline the axis a little to the 
line of vision and cause your representa- 


THE SUN. ri 


tive sun to revolve. Now observe when a 
spot comes in sight; it appears long, thin, 
and nearly perpendicular. As it comes 
to the middle the full breadth appears, 
but appears thin again as it passes to the 
farther side. Also, in consequence of the 
inclination of the axis, the line of the 
moving spots will curve upward — on one 
side, and ~ downward on the other. 
Sometimes as many as fifty spots have 
been seen at once, and sometimes the sun 
is wholly clear of them. The period of 
- the wax and wane of these spots is eleven 
years, and corresponds with certain mag- 
netic disturbances and auroral phenomena 
on the earth. 


One Sun by day, by night ten thousand shine, 

And light us deep into the Deity ; 

How boundless in magnificence and might ! 

O what a confluence of etherial fires, 

From urns unnumbered down the steep of heaven 

Streams to a point, and centers in my sight; 

Nor tarries there; I feel it in my heart; 

My heart at once it humbles and exalts, 

Lays it in dust, and calls it to the skies. 
—Youne. 


LIGHT. 


OUR INSTRUMENT OF INVESTIGA- 
TION. 


“God said, Let there be light.” 


t. Velocity of oh T9r, 000 miles per 
second, — 

2. It carries every-where indications of 
the material of the bodies from which 
it springs, and of the media through 
which it passes. 

3. The intensity of illumination of ob- 
jects at different distances is inversely 
as the square of the distances. 


1. Light goes the distance of the Earth’s 
circumference in + of a second. If we 
take.a photograph by exposing the plate 
ito the light sg44,5 of a second, we have 9 
miles of light todo the work. Light goes 
‘from the Sun to the Earth in 8 minutes; 
‘from the nearest fixed star in 34 years; 
from the polar star in 45 years ; from more 
‘distant stars in thousands of years. They 
may have been smitten out of existence 
decarles of centuries ago, but their poured 
out light is yet flooding the heavens. The 
wings of the morning bear swiftly to the 


LIGHT. 9 


uttermost parts, but not beyond God’s 
right hand’s holding and leading. 

Light is propagated in waves like sound. 
The air does not move forward, but the 

undulations send the sound on. Every 
least ray of light has all the seven colors, 
each being made by a different number of 
vibrations. 

2. If we examine these colors by means 
of the spectroscope, we find vast numbers 
of microscopic parallel lines, some. of 
which indicate salt, others iron, etc., in 
the bodies from which light springs, or in 
the media through which it passes. Suns 
differing from ours in the elements of 
their composition reveal it by their light. 
All these armies of light, from various 
suns, have a distinguishing uniform, The 
omniscient Eye seeing a light ray anywhere 
in the universe, though gone from its 
source a thousand years, and the very Sun 
from which it sprung blotted out of exist- 
ence, is able to tell from which sun it 
originally came. Our Sun has nearly 
every substance known on theearth. We 
have discovered nine elements in Aldeba- 
ran; only three in Sirius. 

3. If a lamp illuminates a page at the 


to STUDIES OF THE STARS, 


distance of a foot with a brightness which 
we call 1,:it will illuminate the same page 
at a distance of two feet, } as much; four 
feet, jy as much. Neptune, our farthest 
planet, receives from the Sun only 94,5 the 
light and heat on a like extent of surface 
the Earth receives. And, on the other 
hand, if two stars appear of equal bright- 
ness whose distances from us are as I to 4, 
the more distant star is sixteen times as_ 
bright as the nearer one. This affords a 
means of comparing the brightness, and 
probably the size, of suns whose distances 
we know. Thus Sirius is equal to 63 of 
our Suns; the Pole star, 83; Vega, 344; 
Capella, 430; Arcturus, 516; Alcyone, in 
the Pleiades, 12,000; a light that is unap- 
proachable by mortals. Our Sun could 
not be seen at all at the distance of these 
bodies. 


Study the light; attempt the high, seek out 
The soul’s bright path ; and since the soul is fire 
Of heat intelligential, turn it aye 
To the all Fatherly source of Light. 
—BAILEY. 


GRAVITATION. 


1. Attraction varies in direct proportion 
to the masses and, 

2. Inversely as the square of the dis- 
tance. 


There is a force which we call attrac- 
tion or gravitation. It has certain modes 
of operation which we know, but of its 
essence we are profoundly ignorant. It 
acts with more than human intelligence, 
and. with inconceivable constancy. It is 
as if every particle of matter had an 
attraction for every other particle of mat- 
ter in the universe. It brings down the 
apple loosened from the bough, makes 
the avalanche thunder down the mountain, 
and holds all worlds together. That two 
bodies of the same mass, hanging freely 
in space, being attracted, should meet 
half way, is one phase of the first law; 
that two bodies whose mass is as 1 to 81, 
namely, the Earth and the Moon, being 
attracted together should meet y4 of the 
distance from the larger, is another ‘phase. 

Since every particle of a world pulls its 
proportionate part, it follows, that if a 


12 STUDIES OF THE STARS. 


body is pulled an amount represented by 
150 pounds on the earth, it’ would be 
pulled twice as much on a body of twice 
the mass.. Hence an average man would 
weigh two pounds on the Moon and two 
tons on the Sun. Who could stand up, 
or even lie down, under the burden of his 
own body? 

But if the Sun attracts ‘so much, why 
are not all plucked off the Earth, and 
drawn to its blazing center? Because of 
the second law. The small Earth near 
attracts morethan the great Sun far away. 
Streaming from a point, the influence 
which would cover a square foot a mile 
away, would cover four square feet two 
miles away. Hence the influence of the. 
Sun on such little bodies as,man_ is not 
appreciable at such a’ distance, but. is 
appreciable on such a. vast body as the 
Moon, or the sea, as will appear when we 
come to the subject of tides. 

But why are not the Earth /and all other 
bodies attracted to a common center in 
one universal crash and wreck? Because 
of another force that counterbalances grav- 
itation, and holds all in delicate,and per- 
fect equipoise. | 


GRAVITATION. 1Z 


Suppose a rifle ball fired from A with 
force enough to carry it in one second 
2,000 feet, to B. Gravity is a force sufficient 
to cause it to fall in the same second six- 
teen feet, to. C. The result of both forces. 
acting at once will cause the ball to take 
the curved line A, D.. Sothe Earth has a 
forward motion, A, B, of 68,091 miles an 
hour. And the sun draws the earth to- 
ward it, A, C, 247402, miles an hour, giv- 
ing the line A, D, which, being indefinitely 


prolonged, circles back to its. starting 
place, and so the Earth never flies off into: 
space, nor falls into the Sun. .When the 
slinger whirls the stone swiftly enough, it 
will fly off and crash the skull of Goliath ; 
slowly enough, it will fall on his hand from 
above. he tension of the string repre- 
sents attraction, the centripetal (center- 
seeking) force; the tendency to fly off in a 
tangent represents the centrifugal (center- 
fleeing) force. Now in all relations of 


14 STUDIES OF THE STARS. 


whirling worlds, these must pertectly bal- 
ance each other, and that, not only in re- 
gard to two bodies, as Moon and Earth, 
but in regard to the Sun, all its planets, 
their moons, and myriads of suns besides. 
Nothing can be more wonderful. The 
infinite delicacy of the unstable equilib- 
rium of the universe is inconceivable. The 
water of our globe is a good illustration. 
It rests in even poise around all shores. 
But if it were a trifle heavier or lighter, if 
the Earth should revolve slower or faster, 
if the Moon should come nearer or go 
farther away, if the Sun’s attraction should 
increase or diminish, these plastic seas 
would rush, and bury either the poles or 
the equator miles deep, and leave the de- 
serted parts miles from any moisture. 
Job could not understand the balancing 
of the clouds, much less the balancing of 
vast systems hung’upon nothing. The 
Moon is another illustration. In going 
round the Earth it rushes 480,000 miles 
nearer the Sun. It feels the Sun’s attrac- 
tion increase with every mile. It is led 
thousands of miles out of its true course ; 
but the elastic hold of the Earth at length 
prevails, and the Moon climbs away from 


GRAVITATION 15 


the Sun in defiance of its power. The 
Moon varies its distance from the Earth to 
the amount of 31,355 miles. The adjust- 
ment of two bodies and two forces in 
simple curve would be a comparatively 
easy matter. But there are over 60 causes 
of variation from such a simple curve in 
the case of the Moon. The value of each 
of these must be considered in calculating 
an eclipse, or the moon’s place as a guide 
to the sailor. One planet affects every 
other. Jupiter’s four moons affect him 
and themselves. They turned a comet 
out of its course in 1770, and tangled its 
path for four months. Still the equipoise 
is maintained. The scale nods from side 
to side, but neither pan ever kicks the 
beam. 


The universe is infinitely wide, 
and conquering reason, if self-glorified, 
Can nowhere move, uncrossed by some new wall 
Or gulf of mystery, which thou alone, 
Imaginative faith ! canst overleap 
In progress toward the fount of Love. 
— WORDSWORTH, 


THE: PLANBTS: 


“He hangeth the earth upon nothing.” 


Distance from : Hourl 
Name. Sai! Boe Diameter. “rib ie 
Yr. Ds. 

1 Mercury .. 35,392,000 © 88 3,058 95,000 
2 Venus .... 3134,000 © 225 7,510 75,006 
Si bartnensere 92,430,000 I. ... 7,926 68,000 
4 Mars...... 139,311,000 I 322 4,363 55,000 
5 Asteroids , 4 200,000,000 3 230 240 44,000 
q 315,000,000 4 225 2,000 41,000 

6 Jupiter ... 475,092,000 I1 317 84,843 30,000 
7 Saturn. s.% 872,137,000 29 175 70,136 22,000 
8 Uranus ... 1,753,869,000 84 ... 33,247 15,000 
9 Neptune.. 2,745,998,000 164 ... 37,276 11,000 


Looking out from the Earth, we see one 
body, the Moon, making a circuit about it 
in 27 days. Looking out from Jupiter, we 
see four bodies, or moons, making circuits 
about it at various distances, and in vari- 
ous times. Looking out from the Sun, we 
see 8 planets with satellites, making their 
various circuits about the Sun. The rela- 
tive size and distances of the Sun and 
planets may be represented as follows: 
Put in position a globe 2 feet in diameter— 
a half of a barrel, or a two bushel basket 
will do; 14 feet from its center mount on 
a stick, so as to reach the equator, a mus- 
tard-seed for the planet Mercury; a pea 
ditto, for Venus, 3 feet from the Sun’s cen- 
ter ; another pea, not al] on the same side, 


THE PLANETS. 17 


4 feet away, for Earth; a large pin-head, 
6 feet distant, for Mars; 200 specks of 
pepper on a paper, I1 feet away, for the 
Asteroids ; a small orange, 20 feet away, 
for Jupiter; a smaller orange, 37 feet 
away, for Saturn; a cherry, at 75 feet, for 
Uranus; and another, at 118 feet, for 
Neptune. | 

The speed of Mercury is 79 times as 
swift as a rifle ball that goes % uf a mile in 
asecond. The great Earth flies more than. 
1,000 miles a minute, besides revolving its. 
surface 1,000 miles an hour. Yet no bird is. 
ever unnested or babe waked by the motion. 

Neptune's motion is less than 200 miles. 
a minute. 

The planets do not go round the Sun in. 
a circle, but in an ellipse, the Sun being in 
one of the foci. In consequence of this 
the Earth is 2,066,000 miles nearer the 
Sun in one part of its orbit than another, 
and Neptune is 50,384,000 miles neare1. 


MERCURY. 


Distance from Sun, 35,392,000 miles. 
Diameter, 3,080 miles. 


Looking at the planets separately, little 
can be said of thts one. He is so near the 


18 STUDIES OF THE STARS. 


Sun little can be seen of him. The aver- 
age heat of this planet must be about 14 
that of boiling water, and for summer 
temperatures they must need thermome- 
ters ten feet long. 


VENUS. 
' Distance from Sun, 66,134,000 miles. 
Diameter, 7,510 miles. 

This brightest of all stars is never seen 
more than 47° behind the sun; then it is 
the Evening Star; or, before it, then it is 
the Morning Star. Venus has an atmos- \ 
phere charged with aqueous vapor. She 
revolves on her axis in 23 hours, 21 min- 
utes, 19 seconds. Seen from the Earth, it 
presents phases like the Moon, which will 
be readily understood by an inspection of 


figure 2, When Venus is at B she would 
appear in the refiected light of the Sun as 
a thin crescent, as seen from A. When 
she is at C the lower half of its disk would 


THE PLANETS. 19 


be illumined. When at D it would ap- 
pear round as a full Moon. Her apparent 
retrograde motion is, also, easily under- 
stood. The motion of Venus is judged 
by the distant stars, among which it seems 
tc be projected. When it is at B it ap- 
pears among the stars at 1. Passing on 
to C, it seems to retrograde to 2. Going 
to D, it passes back to I again. The ret- 
rograde movements of the exterior planets. 
are much greater, and as easily under- 
stood. 


THE EARTH. 


Distance from Sun, 91,430,000 miles. 
Diameter, Polar, 7,898 miles. 
ae Equatorial, 7,924 miles. 
Mass, 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons, 
More can be shown by illustrations that 

the reader can produce than by any draw- 
ing. Put on the table or wall a lamp 
shade, or other globe, to represent the 
Sun, mark on it the spots, and incline 
its axis 74° from the perpendicular. 
Around this, as one focus, draw several 
elliptical orbits, at suitable distances, for 
as many planets as you can represent. 
Now take an apple or other ball, flattened 
at the ends; through these pass an axis 


20 STUDIES OF THE STARS. 


sharp enough to stick into any part of the: 
orbit drawn, and long enough to raise the 
ball as high as the center of the Sun, 
Draw the equator midway between the 


poles, and add meridians of longitude ' 


and parallels of latitude if you choose. 
Stick in pins for men, heads up, and sticks 
for a winter forest ; set up the Earth on its 
long axis in some part of the orbit, inclined 
from the perpendicular 234° Many things 
will now become evident; 4. g., by revolv- 
ing the Earth on its axis, the morning sun- 
light will come over the east, then shine 
from above, and then set in the west. 
Also the Moon and the dome filled with 
stars will seem to revolve in like manner. 
Since men are attracted to the earth, it 
makes no difference whether their heads 
are up or down ; indeed, toward the Earth 
is always down tothem. Hang the Moon 
from the upper pole so that it will swing 


Yr 


THE PLANETS. 21 


round the earth near the equator, and it 
will be seen that when it comes hetween 
the Earth and the Sun it eclipses that orb, 
and when it goes behind the Earth into its 
shadow it is eclipsed itself. Also, when 
the Moon is nearly between the Earth and 
Sun it shows only a thin crescent of illu- 
mination. When it has passed go®°, or $ 
of a revolution, it would be half illumined ; 
and when opposite the Sun, and not in the 
Earth’s shadow, it shows full Moon. Itis 
seen, also, that the sunlight reaches 234° 
' beyond the lower pole, and makes that 
region perpetual day as the Earth revolves. 
And 234° about the upper pole is in constant 
night. Remembering that the Earth’s 
axis always points to the same north star, 
z. é., it does not revolve in two directions 
at once, carry the Earth to the other 
side of the Sun. Now the upper pole is 
illuminated, making the days long and | 
nights short below the 234°, and leaving 
the lower pole dark. 

The measurement of the sing is easy. 
We observe that the North Star is 409 
above the horizon at Philadelphia. We go 
north till it is 41° above, and find we have 
gone 69 miles, which, multiplied by 3609, 


22 STUDIES OF THE STARS 


gives the circumference, 24,887 miles. 
The length of the degree differs a little in 
different places, according to the oblate- 
ness of the spheroid in those places. 

The distance of the Sun is measured in 
several ways: by taking the angles he 
makes at the two ends of a horizontal 
line as long as the Earth’s semi-diameter ; 
by the transit of Venus; by the velocity 
of light ; and, knowing the Sun’s diameter, 
measuring his distance by the apparent 
breadth of the disk. 

Two lines drawn up from each end of a 
line 10 inches in length, and perpendicular 
thereto, will make right angles with that 
line, be parallel, and, of course, never meet. 
But if drawn so as to meet anywhere 
within three hundred miles from that ro 
inch base line, such is the wonderful per- 
fectness of astronomical instruments that 
they would measure how much these an- 
gles varied from right angles, and know 
the distance at which they met. Now, to 
measure the distance of the Sun we could 
take two stations with the Earth’s diame- 
ter between them, if necessary. 

Measurement by the transit of Venus 
is more exact. The instant when that 


THE PLANETS. 23 


planet touched the edge of the Sun would 
appear very different to observers on op- 
posite sides of the Earth, and knowing the 
distance of Venus from the Earth, the so- 
lution of the problem becomes easy. 

We are far from the Sun. Call it in 
rourd numbers 92,000,000 of miles. If 
we lay an imaginary track thither, and 
put on an imaginary locomotive running 
at the usual express speed, it would take 
8 months to reach the orbit of the Moon. 
Put a little babe on that train bound to: 
the Sun. He grows up, passes the period 
of his glad youth, strong manhood, ar- 
rives at the end of his 70 years, the allotted 
time of man, but his dying eyes look vainly 
for a near view of the goal of his life’s 
journey. Then let another babe take his 
place. Childhood, youth, manhood, age- 
another life goes by. Not arrived. Add 
another life, 70 years more. Not arrived. 
Add a fourth period of life, then a fifth, 
and when all five have lived their lives 
and died, after ‘350 years of travel, that 
locomotive that has never stopped a min- 
ute, day nor night, for wood, water, or to 
cool its glowing axles, would barely get 
that last man there in time to bury him. 


24 STUDIES OF THE STARS, 


‘Hardly any thing is quicker than the flash 
of the sensation of pain. But if a man 
had an arm long enough to reach the Sun, 
it would be 135 years before he knew he 
was burned 


THE MOON. 


Mean distance from Earth, 238,818 miles. 
Diameter, 2,159 miles. 

Revolution about the Earth, 27 + days. 
Revolution on axis, same time. 

The Moon is our next-door neighbor. 
If you notice a star in proximity to it, you 
will see that the distance is very percepti- 
bly different in an hour. On the next 
‘evening the Moon will be 13° farther east. 
This gives an entire revolution from west 
to east in 27 days. By revolving on its 
own axis in the same time it manages to 
show us always the same face. No man 
ever saw the back side of the Moon. 
It is a craggy, desolate, upheaved, torn, 
‘rent, mountained, chasmed, volcanoed, and 
moon-quaked orb. The gravity is so small 
—o'16 that of Earth—that precipices do 
not tumble down, pits do not fillup. They 
«can be seen in the southern part 3 miles 
‘deep, of all sizes from 4 of a mile to 10 
miles across. This little orb, #5 the size 


THE PLANETS. 25 


of Earth, has 28 mountains higher than 
the “ monarch of mountains,’’ Mount Blanc. 
Its highest mountain, Doerfel, is 24,945 
feet high. 

The Earth, seen from the Moon, looks 
ike the Moon seen from the Earth, only 13 
times as large. It is sometimes between 
the Moon and the Sun, and sometimes 
opposite the sun. But as the Moon al- 
ways presents the same side to the Earth, 
Earth seems stationary over that point. 
The Moon has no water or atmosphere ; 
if it ever had, they are absorbed in the 
interior of the burned out char, 

The path of the Moon around the Earth 
is indescribable. Mount an 8 inch ball 
on one end of a 20 foot pole, and a 2 
inch ball on the other, and they just rep- 
resent the Earth and the Moon, and their 
distance apart; find the center of gravity, 
mount it on a pivot, and set it whirling. 
The center of the Earth revolves from 
this cause alone on an orbit 6,000 miles 
in diameter, and the Moon in one 476,636 
miles in diameter. Carry the whole ap- 
paratus forward 1,000 miles a minute 
around the Sun, and the Moon’s path is a 
set of curves impossible to describe. 


26 STUDIES OF THE STARS. 


ECLIPSES.—If a plane be imagined in 
which the line of the Earth’s orbit around 
the Sun lies, that is called the plane of the 
Earth’s orbit, or the ecliptic. Of course it 
passes through the centers of the Sun and 
the Earth. A like plane of the Moon’s or- 
bit passes the center of the Moon and the 
Earth. Now, if these corresponded, or 
were one and the same plane, the Sun 
would be hidden or eclipsed every time 
the Moon passed before the Earth, and the 
Moon eclipsed evéry time it passed be- 
hind the Earth. But these planes do not 
correspond. That of the Moon is inclined 
to the other, passing through it, one half 
above and one half below. If the Moon 


should be at a when the Earth was in 
that part of its orbit, and the intersection 
of the planes of the orbits in that position, 
the Sun must be eclipsed. But if the 
Earth was at d—the intersection.of the 


THE PLANETS. He | 


planes remaining the same—and the Moon 
came between it and the Sun, the Moon 
would be so far below the connecting line 
as not to hide the Sun. At some inter- 
mediate point it might come so near the 
line of intersection as to partially hide 
the Sun. Eclipses are greater or less in 
degree, according to the varying distance 
of the Earth from the Sun, the Moon from 
the Earth, and by being in different parts 
of their orbits. 
_ TipEs.—The attraction of the Moon 
for the nearer and farther sides of the 
Earth varies inversely as the square of the 
distance. - It attracts the near side much 
more than the far side. The mobile air 
and water yield to this attraction more 
than the more distant mass of solid Earth, 
and pile up a tide under the Moon. And 
the solid Earth yields to this attraction 
more than the far-off air and water of the 
other side; and hence the Earth, being 
solid, is pulled away from the mobile air 
and water of the other side, leaving it 
piled up on the side of the Earth opposite 
to the Moon. When the Sun and Moon 
join their forces in the same line, we have 
tides one third higher than the Moon’s, 


28 STUDIES OF THE STARS, 


called spring tides. When they exert their 
forces at right angles with each other the 
Sun subtracts one third from the Moon’s 
tides, giving what are called low or neap 
tides. Bodies of water so small as the 
great lakes or the Mediterranean Sea are 
too small to show a perceptible tide. 
Tides are so much affected by currents, 
islands, trend of shores, distance of Sun 
and Moon, etc., as to give great variety of 
tides; those of the Bay of Fundy being 70 
feet, Boston 11 feet, New York 65 leet, etc. 

The Moon has been getting nearer to 
the Earth for thousands of years. Will 
there be a collision between these sailers 
of the sky? Is a ball large enough to 
wreck a continent, going at 40 miles a 
minute, about to meet us going a thou- 
sand? Never fear. It approaches slowly. 
It has shortened its time of revolution 
only 10 seconds in a century; and 
after approaching the Earth for millions 
of years, will begin to recede agair by 
the same power that drew it nigh. What 
stupendous prophecies human_ science 
- enables us to make! Shall any prophecy 
be too difficult for Divine science or Ome 
niscience to declare? 


THE PLANETS. 26 


MARS. 


Distance from Sun, 139,000,000 miles:. 
Diameter, 4,400 miles. 
Daily revolution, 24 hours 37 minutes; 

This planet is singularly like the Earth 
in length of days, variety of seasons, abun- 
dant vapor for rain, ice around the pole,. 
which melts as the Sun approaches, and: 
in divided land and water. 

We enjoy greatly differing opportunities 
for acquaintance. Whem we are on op- 
posite sides of the Sun we are 230,000,000: 

‘of miles apart. When on the same side: 
we may be quite near. If Mars is in that 
part of his orbit called perihelion, or near- 
est the Sun, and we at aphelion of our 
orbit, or farthest from the Sun, we may 
be only 33,000,000 of miles apart. This: 
favorable opportunity happens about once: 
in 79 years. In this year of grace 1877, 
Mars introduced us to two members 
of his family we had never seen before. 
Mr. Hall, of the Washington Observatory, 
discovered in the month of August twu 
moons, one having as a period of revo- 
lution 30 hours 14 minutes, and the other 
7 hours 35 minutes. In consequence of 
this time of revolution being less than, 


~ 


3° STUDIES OF THE STARS. 


Mars’ axial revolution, this Moon rises in 
the west and sets in the east. Probably 
meither of them is Io miles in diameter. 


ASTEROIDS. 
The law of the distance of the several 
planets from the Sun is expressed by this 
series :— 


re) a 6 12 24 48 96 192 
Add Pee. Pea Ye dar ee ee eee” 4 
4 yp Bee) 16 28 52 100 196 


Now this lower line of figures nearly rep- 
resents the relative distances of the 
planets. It approximates the truth to 
say that each one is twice as far from the 
Sun as the next interior one. Thus it was 
seen that there was a strange gap be- 
tween Mars and Jupiter, and twenty-four 
astronomers made a league to search for 
the missing planet. Piazzi discovered a 
small star January 1, 1801, which, despite 
his long sickness and the loss of the plan- 
et in the Sun’s rays, was rediscovered by 
Olbers on December 3, 1801, and named 
Ceres. This proved to be but the herald 
of a large body of small planets, of which 
nearly 200 have now been discovered, 
having distances from the Sun varying 


THE PLANETS. 3t 


from 200 to 315 millions of miles. The 
combined mass of all these asteroids is not 
‘ probably one tenth of that of the Earth. 

What a proof of the accuracy of astro- 
nomical observations of movements, when 
each of these nearly, 200, bodies, which 
cannot be distinguished from each other. 
by any appearance they present, can be 
accurately known, even though not seen 
for 50 years, by the observation of their 
line of motion ! 


JUPITER. 


Distance from Sun, 475,692,000 miles. 
Diameter, 85,000 miles. 
Daily rotation, 9 hours 55 minutes. 


Behold the monster of planets! All the 
rest put together would barely equal two 
fifths of this. It is 300 times the mass of 
the Earth, and 1,233 times the volume. It 
is royally attended by four moons. The 
inner one makes a revolution in 42 hours, 
(instead of 27 days, as our Moon,) and the 
outer one in 16 days 16 hours. Eclipses 
are not only an every-day matter, but al- 
most hourly. These eclipses have done 
excellent service in measuring the velocity 
of light. We know toa second when they 
take place. But when the Earth is on the 


3 


32 STUDIES OF THE STARS, 


opposite side of the Sun from Jupiter these 
- eclipses take place 16 minutes later than 
when on the same side as in figure 5. 


Is celestial chronometry getting de- 
ranged? No! these great worlds swing, 
never a second out of time, nor an inch 
out of place. By: going:to the other side 
of the Sun we become 184,000,000 of miles 
farther from Jupiter, and the light that 
brings us the intelligence consumes the 
extra time in passing over the extra dis- 
tance. 184,000,000 miles+960 seconds= 
191,000-++miles per second as the velocity 
of light. A 

I have seen the rude little telescope with 
which Galileo discovered these moons. A 
better one can be bought for five dollars. 

There is probably no resemblance be- 
tween the condition of Jupiter and the 
Earth. The body is probably intensely 
heated and feebly self-luminous. It has 
no variety of season. It presents to the 


THE PLANETS. 33 


view of the telescope changing lines of 
belts and spots from which little can be 
trustworthily inferred. In consequence 
of its extreme rapidity of rotation the flat- 
tening of its poles is very great. The 
equatorial diameter exceeds the polar by 
more than 6,000 miles. 


‘SATURN. 


Distance from Sun, 872,137,000 miles. 
Diameter, polar, 66,500 miles. 
Diameter, equatorial, 73,500 miles. 
Axial revolution, 1o hours 30 minutes. 
This is the most wonderful planet of all. 
It is the largest, except Jupiter. Its mass 
is three times the mass of all the other 
planets combined, Jupiter being omitted. 
It is 90 times the mass of the Earth, and 
700 times the volume. It differs from all 
other known celestial bodies in having 
enormous rings. It presents these at dif- 
ferent inclinations to the Earth. They ap- 
peared to Galileo, who first saw them, as 
two small bodies on either side of the 
planet. Subsequently they presented only . 
the thin invisible edge to his sight and 
disappeared altogether. Again they ap- 
pear as in figure 6. i tly, 
They lie in the plane of the planet’s equa- 


34 STUDIES OF THE STARS. 


tor, and revolve with it. The outer one is 
less brilliant, and inside of them both is 
a dusky semi-transparent ring, seen with 
difficulty. The inner edge of this ring is 
constantly approaching the planet, while 
the breadth of the two outer, or bright 
rings, is constantly expanding. These | 


rings are’ supposed to be composed of 
myriads of independent minute satellites 
mingled with vapor. Hence not solid. 

Saturn hasa system of eight moons, 
some of enormous size and revolving at 
a great distance. 


URANUS. 


Distance from Sun, 1,753,869,000 miles. 
Diameter, 33,000 miles. 
The distance of this planet from the 
’ Sun is 19 times that of the earth. A train 
started from the sun thither 6,000 years 
ago would be only just arriving. 
, This planet has four moons, which pre- 


THE PLANETS. 35 


sent the wholly anomalous phenomenon 
of revolving nearly over the poles and ina 
retrograde direction. 


NEPTUNE. 


Nistance from Sun, 2,745,998,000 miles, 
Diameter, 35,000 miles. 

The orbit of Uranus had embarrassed 
astronomers for years with irregularities 
which could not be accounted for. Bou- 
vard suggested another exterior planet. 
Leverrier of France, and Adams of En- 
' gland, undertook to tell where it must be 
from these irregularities. Both succeeded 
perfectly in determining the mass, orbit, 
and actual position of an unseen body. 

On searching in the place indicated, the 
planet was discovered first at Berlin, and 
afterward at Cambridge, England. It has 
one satellite. Probably two. The cold 
here, unless these outer planets have heat 
of their own, or an absorptive and reten- 
tive atmosphere, must be 100° below zero, 
and the far-off sun looks but little larger 
than a first class star. We thus reach the 
outer boundary of the solar system, but 
have scarcely taken the first steps of a 
voyage to the surrounding stars. Light 


36 STUDIES OF THE STARS. 


goes to Neptune in four hours, to the 
nearest fixed star in 34 years. 

The order of the planets—Mercury, 
Venus, Earth, Mars, Asteroids, Jupiter, 
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune—may be re- 
membered mnemonically thus :—Mercury 
Vzews Earth; Mars Azd Jupiter che 
SUN. Or the initials give us a name with 
French and English titles, as:—M. Ve 
Maj. Sun. 

The number of satellites may be remem- 
bered by this series, beginning with Earth, 
RY ap te Pl Wi 


Who rounded in his palm these spacious orbs, 
And bowled them flaming through the dark pro- 
found, 
Numerous as glittering gems of morning dew, 
Or sparks from populous cities in a blaze, 
And set the bosom of old night on fire ? 
— YOUNG. 


COMETS. 


“S Wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness 
of darkness forever.’’—JuDE. 

Notwithstanding our king of day may 
make Neptune his farthest province, he 
sends his scouts much farther. 

When the comet of 1680 wheeled round 
the Sun, 200 years ago, it commenced an 
outward march of 4,500 years before it 
should “ about face”’ and begin its equally 
longreturn. It seems asifits long ‘“ black- 
ness of darkness’ were best expressed by 
the term forever. Some go so far that 
gravitation turns the other way; other 
suns allure them, and they go as envoys to 
other systems of worlds than ours. 

The orbits of these strange visitors 
are extremely elliptical, circles whose two 
sides have been well-nigh brought together. 
They come rushing down into the steady, 
well-ordered ranks of planetary bodies 
from all points of the sky, above, below, 
around. They are like dashing aids-de- 
camp among the ordered lines of battle. 
Their speed is sometimes frightful. The 
comet of 1680, above referred to, went, 
when nearest the Sun, 1,000,000 miles an 


38 STUDIES OF THE STARS. 


hour. It went within 130,000 miles of the 
Sun, and must have been heated 2,000 
times hotter than red hot iron; others 
wheel outside of Neptune’s orbit, and are 
never light or warm; 700 have been seen 
by the naked eye since the time of Christ. 
The number that belongs to our Sun is 
supposed to be several millions. They 
may have tails 200 millions of miles long, 
like the comet of 1843, or no tail at all, 
like that of 1585; or the same comet may 
be in both of these conditions at different 
times. 

They are not specially dense bodies, for 
small stars have, at times, been seen 
through their brightest parts.  Biela’s 
comet was once famous for the regularity 
of its return, having a period of 6% years. 
In 1847 it divided into two comets under 
our eyes. It was seen in 1852, the parts 
separated by a distance of 1,250,000 miles. 
It was not seen in 1866 and 1872, but the 
brilliant shower of meteors in November 
27, 1872, was, doubtless, occasioned by 
some of the remains of that comet. When 
that shower of streaming light flashed in 
our upper air, Klinkerfues, a German as- 
tronomer, telegraphed to Madras, on the 


THF PLANETS. 39 


other side of the globe, “Bela touched 
earth on 27th. Search near Theta Cen- 
taurt.”’ And searching there the ob- 
server saw the departing comet, through 
some part of which the Earth had passed. 

Comets are probably composed of dis- 
connected meteoric bodies traveling to- 
gether, with so little coherence that the 
Sun lengthens the mass into a stream as 
it approaches him, Their mass is so in- 
considerable that Halley’s comet, due in 
1759, was retarded by Jupiter 618 days 
without any appreciable effect on that 
body. 

Science has scattered one cause of fear 
since 1456, when a brilliant comet, curved 
like a Turkish cimeter hanging in the 
sky, caused all Europe to pray, ‘‘ Good 
Lord, deliver us from the devil, the 
comet, and the Turk,’’ Pope Calixtus ITI. 
excommunicated this comet, whereupon 
it went away. Nevertheless it gets cour- 
age to come back every 75 years. 


METEORIC. SYSTEMS. 


** The Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon 
them unto Azekah, and they died.”’—Josuua, 
Looking into the clear heavens almost 
any night we may see a bright light sud- 
denly appear, dart a few degrees across our 
vision, and as suddenly disappear, or burst 
into detonations and coruscations, and 
pelt the Earth with stones of various sizes, 
from very small to 30,000 pounds weight. 
In November, 1831, 1832, and 1833, three 
successive showers covered an area of 
1,000 miles long by 500 miles wide. A 
man counted 650 in fifteen minutes. The 
shower lasted seven hours, and 273,000 
might have been seen from a single point. 
The cause of this display is the darting 
of stones of various sizes, at great veloc- 
ities, into our atmosphere. Their force is 
turned to heat, the air and themselves set 
on fire; and they either pass out of the 
air, cool off, and disappear, or dissipate in 
the fervent heat, or burst and descend as 
solids to the Earth. Over 2,000 were 
collected from a small area in Normandy 
in 1803, the result of a single shower. 
These innumerable bodies seem to 


METEORIC SYSTEMS. 41 


flow in streams, like motes in a sunbeam, 
in regular orbits. Leverrier, whose spirit 
passes into the upper heavens as I write 
these pages, computed that the period 
of the meteor stream of 1831, 1832, 
and 1833, was 33¢ years; but the stream 
that flowed along the orbit was so long 
that the earth went through it for three 
successive years. Some of the streams 
may flow over the entire length of the 
whole orbit. The position and direction 
of over 100 of these meteor streams is 
already known. Others are liable to be 
added to our system from surrounding 
space at any time by the attractive pow- 
er of the Sun or distant planet. Thus 
comets or meteor systems seem closely 
related. Where the separate bodies are 
near enough to be visible in the sunlight 
they are called comets. Thus their tails 
can expand, contract, or disappear; or 
even the whole body be so extended as to 
become invisible. 


THE FIXED STARS. 


“Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the 
height of the stars, how high they are!” 

In aclear night the heavens seem like 
a vast dome studded with stars. They 
appear to rise in the east, and sweep like 
a mighty army, perfectly disciplined, to- 
ward the west. If each left its line of 
march, marked by a tracery of golden fire, 
we should have a dome of parallel lines in 
perfect circles. All these would be con- 
centric near the north polar star. And if 
we should go south of the equator new 
stars would appear circling in another 
dome, and all concentric at the south pole. 
All these stars seem to be at the same 
distance. If we take our telescopes, that 
detect a convergence of Io inches in 300 
miles, and from opposites of the Earth 
point two of them at the same star at the 
same instant, they both make the same 
angle; the lines do not converge. Then 
we observe a star at a given date, and 
wait 6 months till the world has whirled 
across its orbit, and the base line is not 1o 
inches nor 8,000 miles, but 184,000,000, 
Then we observe the star again, but it is 


THE FIXED STARS. 43 


the same angle still. That is, the Earth’s 
orbit, 184,000,000 of miles wide, seen from 
a star would appear a point. But hold! 
we discover that there are a few stars that 
appear to show signs of parallax, 7. ¢., 
showing different angles from the two 
sides of our orbit. Suppose we measure 
the inclination of these telescopes on a 
mural circle 30 feet in circumference. 
We divide every circle into 360 degrees, 
each degree into 60 minutes, every min- 
ute into 60 seconds, in all 1,296,000 divis- 
. ions of the circle by seconds. Each of 
these will measure on a 30 foot circle 
00027 of aninch. Of course they can be 
read only bya microscope. But the great- 
est parallax of any star yet discovered is 
that of a centaurz, which is only o'"9, one 
tenth less than one second. This gives a 
_ distance of 20,000,000,000,000 of miles, or 
a light journey of 3} years. The nearest 
star in our northern hemisphere is 61 cygnz, 
which has a parallax of 055, which gives 
a distance of 61,000,000,000,000 miles, a 
journey for light of 7} years. Sirius, witha 
parallax of o'°15, is twice as far. The 
mind of man is as incompetent as a babe 
to appreciate these distances. No tele- 


44 STUDIES OF THE STARS. 


Scope ever enlarges a star from a mere 
point to a disk. 

DOUBLE STARS.—When a telescope of 
high power is applied to some stars they 
divide into two; as two lights which far 
off appear as one, may be discerned to be 
two on nearer approach. This might hap- 
pen if two stars were in the same line of 
vision, and had no relation to each other. 
They are called double stars when. they 
are related together and revolve about a 
common center of gravity. The Pole Star 
is double; Sirius also. The second one, in 
the tail of the Great Bear, Mizar by name, 
is also double. The eye sees Alcor very 
near Mizar, but that is not its companion. 
Every one knows the Great Dipper, the | 
end stars pointing very near the North 
Star. Imagine a line drawn from the 
Pole Star to the star Megres connecting 
the handle and dipper. It will be 36° long. 
‘ At the Pole Star erect a perpendicular to 
this line 52° long, and you come to Vega, 
one of the brightest stars. 2° from it— 
the Pointers being 5° apart—and 2° from 
each other, will be seen two faint stars 
making, with Vega, a triangle nearly equi- 
lateral. The northern star can be seen 


1HE FIXnv STARS. 45 


double with an opera-glass. With a first- 
class telescope it appears quadruple. 
There are over 6,000 of these double stars 
already discovered. It is not good even 
for stars to be alone. 

Our law of attraction tells us that two 
suns near each other in fact—not merely 
in line of vision—must be attracted to- 
gether unless attraction is counterbal- 
anced by revolution about a common cen- 
ter. Eagerly we watch to see whether 
they revolve or rush to ruin. Yes, truly, 
they are seen in revolution. One pair in 
the left hind paw of the Great Bear has 
made an entire revolution since it was ob- 
served. Its time is 60 years. The set 
called Mizar has a period of 200,000 years. 
Of the quadruple star we found near Ve- 
ga, one pair revolves in about 4,000 years, 
the other pair in about 12,000 years, and 
the two pairs whirl about their common 
center of gravityin about a million. Add 
to these suns, planets, satellites, comets, 
and meteors, and complexities result that 
no mind but the Infinite can pierce. 

All observers have noticed that stars 
differ in color. About one half are white, 
giving all the colors of the spectrum, 4 are 


46 STUDIES OF THE STARS. 


yellow. About 100 are red, and a few 
of a blue tint. It is probable that all va- 
riations from white result from the pres- 
- ence of absorptive vapors cutting off cer- 
tain colors. The two members of double 
stars always differ in color. One is 
orange, the other green ; one is yellow, and 
the other a sapphire blue, etc. A planet 
revolving between them may have a rosy 
day, followed by a purple twilight, and a 
night of sapphire blue. Earth is full of 
variety. The same Creator flashes such 
life along the starry arteries that the si- 
lent spaces. respond in blushes of rosy 
light, and changeful scenes of varying 
beauty. 

VARIABLE STARS. _-Draw a line from 
the Pole Star to the Pleiades, stop 25° 
before reaching them, and to the west 
curve four faint stars and one bright one 
in Perseus. 15° degrees east blazes Ca- 
pella, with the little triangle of the kids 
just below. Follow. down the line from 
the pole about 6° farther, turn to the west 
the same distance. There is Algol. For 
24 days it is almost as bright as any star. 
Then in 3} hours it fades away and is 
lost to sight. Then in 34 hours regains 


THE FIXED STARS. 47 


its former brightness. It throbs like a 
pulse of light, seems like a living eye flash- 
ing and growing dim, 

Draw a line from Capella through the 
Pleiades, and continue it as much farther, 
and you will come near Mira, the Won- 
derful. For half a month it is almost as 
bright as any star; then for three months 
it fades away, is lost from sight entirely. 
But after 5 months its resurrection morn- 
ing comes, and in three months again—a 
year in all—our Wonderful is in its full 
glory in the heavens. The star Megres 
has been losing its brightness for a cent- 
ury. Our own Sun ‘is a variable. star 
having a period of 11 years. 

TRANSIENT STARS.—During the past 
century 10 new stars have appeared. 
Whether the work of new creations, or 
the reappearance of some star lost before 
our time, we cannot tell. During the 
same period 13 stars, have disappeared. 
Some seemed to be on fire, as if they, and 
their attendant worlds were consumed 
with fervent heat. 


These little systems have their day ; 
They have their day and cease to be: 
They are but broken lights of Thee, 
And thou, O Lord! art more than they 
—TENNYSON, 
4 


THE SUN’S MOTION IN 
SPACE. 


““His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and ~ 
his circuit unto the end of it.””-—Davin, 

The Sun does not rest quiet in space 
it has a going. And as all celestial mo- 
tion must be circuitous to safety, or recti- 
linear to ruin, the Sun has a circuit and 
safety. The Earth and the Moon go for- 
ward as they revolve. The Sun, with all 
its moving planets, asteroids, satellites, 
and streams of cometary matter, moves ‘on 
from one end of heaven to the other. 
About 17° ahead of Vega may be seen an 
irregular quadrangle of stars, some 10° 
long north and south, 7° on the north end 
and 4° on the south end. The stars of 
this region seem to be getting farther 
apart by reason of the solar system ap- 
proaching at the rate of 8 miles a second. 
The stars at the opposite point of the 
dome seem drawing together, like the 
rails behind a flying train. 

Other suns are also in motion. ‘In 
36,000 years the handle of the Great 
Dipper will be broken to a right angle at 
Mizar,.and Dubhe will have fallen’ from 


No? 


THE SUN’S MOTION IN SPACE. 49 


the opposite end, making the seven stars 
into the form of a gigantic S. 

But where is the Sun that sways suns, 
as the Earth does the Moon? Madler of 
Dorpat announces that the star Alcyone, 
one of the Pleiades, is the central sun of 
our Sun, and many others, The Royal 
Astronomer of England does not regard 
this as proved; but still it is very prob- 
able. It gives our Sun and its worlds an 
orbit of 20,000,000 of years.. The vast 
machine, with flaming suns as rolling 
wheels, is not likely to vanish just yet. 
The time of a single trial revolution is in- 
comprehensible to man.. When God was 


.testing Job’s wisdom and strength, he 


asked him if he could bind the sweet in- 
fluence of the Pleiades. Job did not know 
they had any influence. But when we 


_ come to see that they bind the universe 


together, and float innumerable great 
worlds as easily as the wind floats bubbles, 
that they reach over a distance that it takes 
their light 700 years to travel and control 
the movements of all worlds with infinite 
exactness, then we see that the question 
is not merely an expression of infinite 
power, but of infinite wisdom as well. 


NAMESAND POSITIONS 
OF PHESTARS: 


“ Tell the stars, if ¢hou be able to number them.” 
** He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them 

all by their names.”’ 

It is worthy of much pains to learn the 
names and places of the stars. We shall 
be uttering some of the same sounds by 
which God calls their names. They will 
seem like familiar friends, and will shine 
lovingly upon us when thousands of miles 
from other friends and from the earth. 
Of the uncountable millions let us learn 
afew. Beginning at the end of the han- 
dle of the Great Dipper, we have in order ° 
Benetnasch, Mizar,. Alioth, Megrez,—the 
junction,—Dubhe, Merak—last two, “the 
pointers,”” 5° apart—and Phad. 189 for- 
ward of Dubhe is the Bear’s Nose, and 
three pairs of stars, 15° apart, below, 
show the position of three feet. Follow 
the Pointers 30°, you see Cynosura, or 
the Pole Star. 4 stars besides it make the 
curved up handle of the Little Dipper, in 
Ursa Minor. 

Between the Two Bears, 13° from 
Megrez and 11° from Mizar, are two 


NAMES OF STARS, 51 


stars of the tail of the Dragon. Fol- 
low a curve of 15 stars, doubling back, to 
a quadrangle 5° to 3° on a side, 35° from 
the pole, for his head. Tongue runs out 
to a star, 4° in front. 

From Megrez, through Cynosura, and 
as much farther, you see five stars as an 
irregular w, which is Cassiopeia. 32° far- 
ther is Alpherat, in the square of Peg- 
asus. Sides, 13° to 16° long. Pass the 
diagonal star and there are two stars, 
8° and 9° for the neck of the horse, and 
one at right angles, 6° west, for the nose. 
Alpherat is also the head of Andromeda. 
Nearly diagonally to the square are three 
stars in line from Alpherat, 7°, 14°, and 
26°, The first one, and a star on each 
side, are in the breast; the second, and 
two at the west, are in the belt. Just 
above the third is a nebula, barely visible 
to the naked eye. The third is in the foot, 
10° farther in the same line is the seg- 
ment of Perseus; and # of the cistance 
between, and 8° east, is Algol again. 

The Pleiades fix the shoulder of Taurus; 
the Hyades, shaped like a V, with Alde- 
baran burning on the eastern point, his 
nose and eyes. Follow the lines of the 


52 STUDIES OF THE STARS. 


V 16° further. Two stars 7° apart, nearly 
in line between Capella and Betelguese, 
mark the tips of his horns. From the 
Pleiades, through Aldebaran, and 15° far- 
ther, is Bellatrix, 2d mag., in the left shoul- 
der of Orion; Betelguese, Ist mag., is 74¢ 
east. 26° E. of this is Procyon, in the 
Little Dog; and 26° S. of this, making an 
equilateral triangle with Betelguese, is 
Sirius, in Canis Major. 16° east of Pro- 
cyon are the seven stars of Hydra ina 
compact cluster, the four brightest being 
a trapezium. South of Bellatrix are the 
bands of Orion, and bright Rigel in his 
upraised foot. At the lower foot is the 
irregular seonsutecacagrast 3° by 54°, of the 
Hare. 

Betelguese to 2°S. of Aldebaran 219, then 
35° farther are three stars in the head of 
Aries. From Procyon, 24° toward the Pole, 
are Castor and Pollux, second magnitude, 
54° apart. From Megrez to Pole, 36°, 
then perpendicularly to that line 52°, is 
Vega, already known. 16° south-east, 
passing at 9° the circular nebula, is Albi- 
reo, in. the bill of the Swan. Lying north- 
east thence are tne six stars of the Swan, 
making quite a perfect cross, 20° long by 


NAMES OF STARS. 53 


17° wide. The second star from the foot 
is variable. 20° east by south of Albireo, 
34° from Vega, is Altair, in the Eagle, 
the middle star of three in a line 6° long. 

Observe the double curve of five stars 
17° long. south from Altair, That runs 
through Antinous. 11° north-east from 
Altair is the diamond form of the Dol- 
phin. 

From the Pole pass Vega, and 65° be- 
yond is Sagittarius, the little Milk Dipper 
on his breast, his bent bow 9° to the 
west. From the Pole by the star in 
the tongue of the Dragon 37°, thence 
14°, almost touching the trapezium in the 
loins of Hercules, then 24° farther, 75° 
from the Pole, we see two second magni- 
tude stars, 5° apart, which are in the 
heads of Hercules and the Serpent Bearer. 
38° farther and we find two faint stars in 
the Serpent Bearer’s foot, 15° east of 
Antares, which is 32° west of the Milk 
Dipper, and in the magnificent constella- 
tion of Scorpio. 20° west is the square, 
6° by 9°, of Libra. 

From the Pole by Mizar 35°, then 35° 
more and Arcturus is 14° east, then 40° 
farther is Spica, first magnitude, in Virgo. 


54 STUDIES OF THE STARS. 


From the Pole by Megrez and 30° farthet | 
is the bunch of Berenices’ hair. From the 
Pole through the middle pair for the 
Great Bear’s feet, and 30° farther, is 
Regulus, in the shoulder of Leo. It 
makes the end of the handle of the sickle 
that curves to his nose. Nearly half 
way to Arcturus, and 2° out of line, is 
Denebola in the lion’s tail. It makes 
an equilateral triangle with Spica and 
Arcturus. 

In touching these few points we pass 
innumerable evidences of that motion 
that makes the heavens alive, pass double 
and variable stars by the thousand, and 
nebule made of countless suns, till we 
exclaim with Job: “Lo, these are but 
parts of his ways; a mere whisper is 
heard of him. Who can understand 
the thunder of his power, who by his 
Spirit garnished the heavens ?”’ 


The innumerable stars 
Shining in order, like a living hymn 
Written in light. 
—WILLIS, 


TEST QUESTIONS. 


What is the Sun’s diam, ? time of axial revolution? 
How many Earths equal his bulk? mass? What of 
the size, appearance, and periodicity of the Sun’s spots? 

Give the velocity of light. Illustrate it. What two 
laws are stated? Illustrate each. How are the con- 
stituent elements of a light-giving body discovered? 

What two laws of gravitation? Why would a man 
weigh two lbs. on the Moon and two tons on the Sun? 

Explain the cause of the curvilinear motion of the 
Earth. Illustrate the delicate balancing of worlds. 

Give names of planets in order. Distance from Sun, 
and other facts in the table, at least of the Earth. What 
would be the relative size, and distance, of the planets, 
if the Sun be represented by a globe two feet in diam.? 

What of the heat of Mercury? velocity? 

Explain the apparent retrograde motion of interior 
and exterior planets. 

How is the Earth’s circumference measured? How 
long would it take a locomotive to run to the Sun? 

Describe the Moon’s orbit. Surface. Mountains, 
Why is not the Sun eclipsed at every new Moon? 
What are the causes of the tides? of their variation? 

What caused men to hunt for the Asteroids? 

What is Jupiter’s relative size? Why is he so oblate? 
How is velocity of light measured by Jupiter’s moons ? 

What is the comparative volume of Saturn? What 
of facts concerning his rings ? 

What anomalous fact concerning Uranus’s moons? 

What led Leverrier and Adams to seek for Neptune? 
What of the light and temperature of Neptune? 

Give six facts of comets. The history of Biela’s 
comet, Of what are they probably composed? 

What are meteors? f how many meteor systems 
have we defined the position ? 

How is the distance of fixed stars determined? What 
ones do you know the distance of ? 

How many double stars can you name? How many 
can you point out in the sky? What is the period of 
their revolution? What of the color of stars? 

What of the variable star Algol? Mira? How many 
stars have appeared in a century? disappeared ? 

What is the proof of the Sun’s motion? What is its 
period? velocity? 

There are given here the positions and names of 25 
stars and 30 constellations, How many can you show 
your friends? 


STUDENT’S OUTLINE. 


THE SUN. 


r. Diam. 2. Revolu. 

3. Comp. Earth. 4. Activ. 
s. Hydro. 6. Spots. 

77 Motion of. 


LIGHT. 


x. Veloc. Illus. a@. J¢ sec. 
&. photo. c. fr. stars. 

da, waves. 

2. Sig. material. 
iron, etc., in sun. 
é. Alde. c. Sirius. 
3. Inten. illu. 
a. dist. Ii2: 
#, size of suns. 


GRAVITATION. 


1st. law. masses. 2d. dists. 
@. grav. on moon, 4, sun. 
¢. near earth, far sun. 
@. law of curv. motion. 
¢. of equipo. 

THE PLANETS. 
x. Hangono, 2. Names, 


3. dists. 4. Rel. size. 
5. speed. 6. ellipse. 


MERCURY. 
x, Diam. 2. heat. 


VENUS. 


x. Bright. 47°. 3. rain. 
4. phases. 5. Appar. retrog. 


EARTH. 


x. Dist. 2. Diam, Po, and 
equa. 3. eclipses. 4, meas. 
circum. 5.to sun. 6, burnt 
hand. 7. moon. 8. Dist. 
g. diam. 10. motion, 

1x. surface. 12. path. 

13. eclipses. 14. tides, 

15. danger? 


MARS. 


a. lixe earth. 2. so near, 
so far. 3. moons. 


a. salt, 


: illum. 3: 4. 


JUPITER. 
1. Dist. 2. Diam. 3. mass, 
4. swift rota.’ 5. light meas, 
6. self lu? 
SATURN. 
x. Dist. 2, Diam. 3. mass, 
4. Rings. 5. change. 
6. moons, 
URANUS. 
1. Dist. X Earth’s. 
2. moon’s rev. 
NEPTUNE, 
t. How found? 2. cold, 
3. mnemo. 
COMETS. 
1. var. dist. 2. speed. 
3. aids dec. 4. Nos. 5. not 
dense. 6, meteors fr. 
METEORIC SYSTS. 


1. wt. of. 2. Nos. 3. in 

streams. 4, 1831-2-3. 

5. are invis, comets. 
FIXED STARS. _ 

I. concen. circles. 2, Three 

baselines,’ 3. 27% /” 

4. near stars. 

DOUBLE STARS. 
Pole. Mizar. Sirius, 
Near Vega. revolve, 
color. 

VARIABLE STARS. 
Algol. Mira. Time. 


TRANSIENT STARS. 
10 new—1z3 lost. 


SUN MOVES. 


Toward Her. Star drift. 
Bind Alcyone? 


Best Books for Further Study. 


The most perfect machinery and the deep 
est study of the race have been employed on 
astronomical research. Study 

RECREATIONS IN ASTRONOMY. With di- 
rections for Practical Experiment and Tele- 
scopic work. 84 illustrations and maps of 
all stars. By Henry W. Warren, D. D. 
Price, $1 50. The latest discoveries are de- 
tailed in the most interesting and intelligible 
manner; and the stars are so mapped that 
their names can be easily determined. 

POPULAR ASTRONOMY. Lectures by Prof. 
_O.M. Mitchell. Price, $1 50, An excellent 
description of some fine astronomical instru- 
- ments. 

Ecce Ca@Ltum. By E. F. Burr, D.D. 
Price, $1 25. 

HALF-HouRS WITH THE ‘TELESCOPE. 
Prof. R. A. Proctor. Price, $1. And Pro- 
fessor Proctor’s other works. 

The best popular Atlases of the heavens 
are Burritt’s—price, $1 50—and Proctor’s 
New Star Atlas. Price, $2 50. 

Celestial Globes from six inches, price, $5, 
to 18 inches, price, $75. 

Study the Almanac for the places and 
changes of the planets in sight. Keep ac- 
quainted with them and their movements. 


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